Praise from French President Francois Hollande that we’re all doing very well in taking our austerity medicine left a bitter taste here in Greece.

It’s year four of belt-tightening here and the numbers of unemployed, homeless and people living on the brink of poverty are rising by the hour.

The day after his speech, we endured another general strike. The week before, we learned that one million people had been made jobless since the crisis started and youth unemployment is now running at 61%.

What we are witnessing is the accelerating collapse of the backbone of our society. The austerity measures – which have attacked the private sector instead of the bloated civil service – are strangling the middle class.

Despite brutal cuts to salaries and pensions, we are still expected to pay higher taxes, with smaller deductions and a VAT rate of 23%.

There are still a good many Mercedes, BMWs and sports cars on the roads. And the fashionable cafés still do a thriving business.

But the average person orders take-out and more than 80,000 drivers withdrew their cars from circulation in 2012.

Even the sweet smell of the almond blossoms, mimosa, and Seville (misnomer) oranges brightening up Athenian streets is soured by the stench of the new “nefos” – smog – which is even more noxious than a decade ago.

Heating oil has soared (close to €2 a litre) and a large segment of the population boycott it and heat their homes with air conditioner converters or by burning any wood they can buy, scrounge or chop down. Not only is this smoke dangerous, the nation’s forests are suffering.

Everyone we know, from close friends to the person next to us in the supermarket, is depressed.

Pensioners took a blow at the end of last month when their income sank by 25%, some said reflecting deductions retroactive to last August.

This means many pensioners have seen their income slashed by up to 50% since the crisis started.

Property taxes are causing the greatest pain. Because of the government’s inefficiency or negligence, homeowners are being asked to pay three years in one – the forms haven’t gone out since 2009.

Our electricity bills are crippling because of another property tax now attached to them. Greeks renamed this “haratsi” after a head tax levied by the Ottomans.

Friends in their 50s are panicking. Husbands out of work, children at private schools, living in homes inherited or bought when times were good.

Some are having to ask parents for help. Saddest of all, the safety net of allowances for the mentally or physically handicapped is in tatters.

The higher electricity rates have even opened a new career opportunity for unscrupulous electricians; they can slow your meter to keep consumption seemingly low.

The urge to help is also growing. Shoppers buy extra for the hungry; neighbours cook a second tray of spinach pie for a struggling family next door; women conduct drives for clothes and blankets for the homeless.

Nevertheless, fear is in the air. We are afraid things will get worse and we worry about the rise of the far right Golden Dawn party; or that closing the deficit gap will actually increase the appeal of opposition leader Alexis Tsipras, who advocates repudiation of the troika and all austerity measures.

Then the pain will have been for nothing, for without the support of the EU, our economy will crash altogether.